Google used source files from Apache's Java project, despite appearing to have known that those files were illegally lifted without license from Sun's Java source. (Source: Oracle via Engadget)

A total of 37 Android source files are exact or near-exact copies; Oracle (owner of Java) is suing

Google
smartphones are the hottest things since sliced bread, but that may not do much
to save Google from getting battered by rival software developer Oracle in the
courts. Oracle has sued
Google, accusing it of including open source projects in Android
that illegally copy proprietary source code from Sun Microsystems, Inc., a
subsidiary of Oracle Corp. and makers of Java.

Strangely Google seemed to almost admit this when responding to the lawsuit,
indicating that it knew the Apache version of Java it used was untested with
Sun's Technology Compatibility Kit and thus did not have the rights to the
decompiled Sun Java source code it used. Google admitted to use the
Apache code in Android anyways, complaining in the response that Sun and Oracle
are trying to destroy openness by preventing licensing of open implementations
Java source. In an

Now Florian Mueller, who runs the FOSSpatents blog, has
offered up a whopping 43 more files that appear to be directly taken
from Sun/Oracle without permission. Six of the files belong in the
adjacent directory to the copied files Sun/Oracle identified and displayed in
court documents. Another 37 files elsewhere in the Android source were directly
copied from the Mobile Media API, which Google may not have had the rights
to use.

While
past copyright litigation against the firm and its partners (for example Apple's lawsuit against HTC) seemed unreasonable
and tenuous, here Google appears to have knowingly used code that was owned by
someone else, then justified that action by saying it didn't like the current
licensing situation.

Google will likely play innocent and argue that Android is free and
open, so it can't pay exorbitant court fines for infringing on Sun's property.
But, in reality Google is leveraging its dominant position in the mobile
phone industry to raking in hundreds
of millions in mobile advertising dollars. After all -- Google
Search is free, Gmail is free, Google Docs is free, and Android is free, but
the company still seems to be making a whole lot of money.

Updated 1/21/2011

ZDNET’s
Ed Burnett has posted an article in response to Florian Mueller’s analysis
and has concluded that Google is in the clear in this case.

The second set of 37 files is actually zipped up into one file
called MMAPI.zip and tucked away in a directory used for native code
audio drivers for one particular type of chip set. Florian
really had to go digging for this one. I double-checked the make files and it’s
clear this file is not shipped with Android either. Somebody uploaded it by
mistake and it should simply be deleted.

"It looks like the iPhone 4 might be their Vista, and I'm okay with that." -- Microsoft COO Kevin Turner